


The Devil's Shadow

by DragonGoesMoo



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Team as Family, WIP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-18 15:54:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12391365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonGoesMoo/pseuds/DragonGoesMoo
Summary: When Lilith fell asleep in a New York alleyway she never expected to be woken by Spiderman and whisked off to Avengers Tower. But she was.Now she has a family to call her own but what happens when her past comes back to haunt her.





	1. Meet Spidey

_Finally, a quiet place to sleep_ Lilith thought as she lowered herself to the ground behind a dumpster in a dank, disgusting New York alley. Shadows danced across the alley floor as a street light at the entrance flickered. Sirens whined faintly, echoing around her, from some distant part of the city. She crinkled her nose when the stench of decay and piss assaulted her senses.

“Great” she moaned aloud as she hugged her knees to her chest, her ebony hair falling in her face as she rested it on her knees.

She was almost asleep when some thugs, wielding guns that looked like they should belong in a sci-fi movie, ran into the alley firing some sort of energy blasts at a teen in red and blue spandex. Jumping up she ran to the end of the alley to hide in the shadows and pray no one had seen her as she shifted into her shadow form and melted into the darkness. Her heart pounded in her chest as she watched the young vigilante, Spiderman if the costume was anything to go by, fight.

He was constantly moving, flipping and weaving away from the energy blasts of the thugs all while keeping up a near constant stream of snark and babble. Lilith couldn’t look away. He had finally managed to overcome the thugs, trapping them in his webs, when he turned to her hiding place.

“Hey. The thugs are all unconscious so…you feel like coming out now?” he called into the alley, moving slowly closer to where Lilith was hidden.

She moved further into her hiding place, heart hammering, as the spider hero moved steadily closer to her. Pulling in a shaking, shallow breath she called out hoping to buy herself more time to do something.

“I-I’m fine, you can go. I-it’s okay.” She stuttered, breathing a small sigh of relief as Spiderman stopped moving.

“You sure? Can I check for myself? You don’t have to…come out…that is.” He finished lamely as he shuffled from foot to foot. She knew that revealing herself would be a really bad idea but she hadn’t had any decent sleep for weeks and was exhausted. She could feel her grip on her form slipping as a result and knew that her only option was to step out of the shadows.

“Fine, but you have to promise not to freak out.” She watched the hero stop his shuffling and stare      incredulously in her direction.

“You do realize that I have the abilities of a spider and run around in a red and blue suit fighting bad guys. I really don’t think that anything you do could shock me too much.” Lilith could practically feel the eye roll that he held back.

Slowly, she edged out of the darkness and slipped into her normal form, the shadows morphing into thick, black, ever-moving marks on her skin and her eyes fading from bright red to glittering black. Standing in front of Spiderman now, she waited for the inevitable screaming.

“Oh…My…God!” Lilith sighed and took a step back “That is so cool! You…you were just a _shadow_ and now you have these cool black marks and your eyes are amazing! they actually look like they have a freaking galaxy in them, this is so cool!”

Lilith froze, thankful for the shitty lighting of the alley as she felt her cheeks heating. _He’s not afraid_ She mused as she swayed slightly, feeling the exhaustion that had led her to the alley in the first-place seep through the night’s earlier panic and adrenaline now that the danger had passed.

“Whoa. You okay there? you know if you need to rest you could always come back to the tower.” Spiderman looked at her, eagerness written all over his mask (wow that thing was expressive). Taking a step back Lilith felt her chest tighten, she couldn’t go back with him the others would hate her and then they’d give her back to _Him_.

“NO! I-I can’t go they’ll hate me a-and…” Lilith squeezed her eyes closed as tremors shook through her and the shadows around her writhed in answer to her growing panic.

“No. T-they won’t hate you. They’re good people.” Spiderman interrupted, stepping toward her slowly, arms raised like he was trying to calm a frightened animal. Heaving a sigh, Lilith pushed her panic to the farthest corners of her mind and forced herself to think about it logically. She knew that wherever Spiderman was the cops weren’t far behind and without the energy to use her powers and hide from them they would most definitely find her. While she didn’t fully trust Spiderman, she trusted him more than the cops. So, there really was only one option.

“O-Okay if you promise that they won’t hurt me, then I’ll go.”

“Yes! Hop on I’ll swing us there.” He was bouncing around in excitement, only stopping so that Lilith could get on his back. As soon as she had gotten comfortable they were off flying through the city just as police sirens blared near the alley they had left. ‘ _Lucky we left when we did’_ was her last conscious thought before her eyes drifted closed and Lilith succumbed to sleep.


	2. Awkward Introductions

Lilith awoke to an all-encompassing warmth and comfort that she had only vague memories of ever feeling before. Keeping her eyes closed, she ran her hands over smooth fabric and rolled her face into something soft. It took her sleep addled brain an embarrassing amount of time to realise that she was lying on a bed somewhere and an even longer time to remember why she would be in one at all. Groaning, she finally opened her eyes and sat up, blankets pooling around her waist.

The room she was in was bigger than she had expected. Shucking the blankets, she shimmied to the edge of the enormous bed and swung her legs over the side, smiling to herself as she wiggled her toes in the plush, grey carpet. She spotted a small study nook nestled in one of the corners of the room and wandered over to it, stopping to stare wide eyed and slack jawed out the wall of glass that bathed the room in the mid-morning light and revealed the sprawling city below her. When she did make it to the dark red-brown desk she found a small yellow paper sitting atop it.

‘ _Gone to find food. Will be back. Don’t run off. Please._

_Spidey.’_

Scrunching the note, Lilith strode toward the door. She was grateful that Spiderman had helped her but she wasn’t going to stick around. Nothing good ever happened to her without someone wanting something in return so why should now be any different. She had to leave before anyone else knew she was here.

Lilith had her hand on the door handle when she heard two voices arguing and shoes stomping on along the floor from the other side of the door. Pulling her hand back like it had been burned, Lilith spun and tried to find anywhere that she could hide in the too bright room. Palms sweaty and body shaking, she raced to the walk-in robe the bed sat in front of and shifted, body dissolving into the shadows of the darkened corner she pressed herself into.

“Mr Stark. There’s no one in there, maybe FRIDAY lied.” Spiderman squeaked

“Really, so my highly advanced AI who has not once made a mistake about who’s in the building and is coded to be completely honest with me is lying?” The bedroom door clicked open and a strange high pitch whine filled the room.

“Yes?” There was silence.

“Okay. Fine, I brought someone here last night but she’s cool and she needed somewhere to sleep so I thought y’know why not. I was coming here and you have these spare rooms and…”

“Whoa. Kid slow down. So you brought a girl here. I don’t condone you using my tower to impress people but…what’s her name?” the other voice was getting dangerously close to the entrance of the walk-in.

“I don’t know. I found her in an alley last night when I was on pat…”

“What the hell!” The owner of the other voice stepped into the walk-in and glared at the bright red eyes that peered from the corner of the room. He raised his hand and pointed a glowing metal gauntlet at Lilith.

“What the hell are you? Show yourself. Unless you are just a pair of eyes then I guess you already are.” He mused as Spiderman came barrelling in, slamming into and cracking the wall opposite the door.

“Wait! That’s her. That’s the girl.” He yelled as he dashed in front of Lilith

“Hey, don’t worry about him. Just come out and we’ll sort all of this out.” He smiled and Lilith took a minute to appreciate that he looked a lot like a small puppy before training her eyes on the bearded man behind him and slowly let the shadows surrounding her take shape. They twisted and contorted as they slowed, never fully stopping, and gave the appearance of a woman with long clawed fingers, no mouth and hair that constantly swayed and dripped like slowly running water. She watched as the bearded man smirked.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” He asked airily. Lilith’s eyes widened as she stared in shock. People were supposed to fear her. Even her old captors had been afraid of her and what she could do. Now she had meet two people who didn’t seem afraid at all. Still wary, she shifted back to her normal form. She tilted her head like a confused puppy as the bearded man blanched and tore his gaze away from her. His metal covered hand lowered, shaking. She focused back on Spiderman when he tapped her hand with something. It turned out to be a pair of dark sunglasses, which she slipped on.

“Peter, I told you not to bring ‘friends’ over unannounced.” The bearded man muttered as he tapped the centre of his chest.

“Tony, you don’t understand just let...uhh...” Peter turned to Lilith waiting for something and, after a frankly embarrassing amount of time, she realised that she never told him her name.

“Lilith”

“Yeah. Let Lilith explain at breakfast and then decide if you want to kick her out.” Tony stared at the both of them for what seemed like forever before he sighed and spinning on his heels strode out of the walk-in

“You both coming or what.” He called out, Lilith glanced at Peter as they both began to walk out of the closet

“Whatever happens just be honest.” Peter whispered to her smiling as they caught up with Tony at the elevator. Trying to keep calm as they rode the elevator, Lilith thought about the positives of her current predicament like ‘B _reakfast with the Avengers can’t suck more than sleeping in a dirty alley_.’ The doors opened then onto the biggest open plan living space she had ever seen with light (almost white) hardwood floors, a kitchen and dining area at one end and a lounge area at the other and an entire wall of floor to ceiling windows.

“So, I found the security breach from last night. I would have found it earlier but _someone_ teamed up with FRIDAY to stop me.” Tony announced to the room mock-glaring at Peter. The people standing around the kitchen and dining area all stared as Tony ushered Lilith and Peter toward them.

“This everyone, is Lilith. Apparently, she and Peter are friends and they’re going to tell us all about it over breakfast.”

“Well actually I said that Lilith would…never mind.” Peter began to sass but stopped when he was levelled with an actual glare from Tony. After that both Peter and Lilith hurried to get some food from the buffet that was set up on the island bench. Just the smell alone was enough to make Lilith’s mouth water and she quietly stuffed as much food as she could into her hoodie’s pockets before piling her plate with pancakes, bacon and eggs. There was no telling when she’d find food again once she left.

Once she reached the end of the bench she shuffled over to table and sat next to Peter, acutely aware of the people eyeing her. Especially the Black Widow who was watching Lilith with a blank, expressionless stare from her seat on the other side of Peter. Dread and panic began to stir in the pit of her stomach as she swallowed around the lump in her throat and stared at her plate. _She doesn’t know stop being paranoid_ she screamed at herself, completely missing the flinch from the brunette at the end of the table.

“So, Lilith how did you and Peter meet?” Startled out of her internal debate, Lilith jumped, head snapping up to stare at a pair of baby blue eyes that could only belong to Captain America before she faced her plate again. Grimacing, she shrunk into herself when she heard a gasp from where he sat.

“Nice going Steve.” She heard someone mutter and watched with wrapped fascination as Captain America blushed

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to startle you.” He said softly which shocked her. Usually the gasps Lilith heard were because she had frightened someone not because they had frightened her.

“I-It’s fine. Peter…well he kind of found me in an alley last night” she began and told them the whole story of how she came to be eating with them. By the end of her retelling she was thoroughly confused. Where she was expecting to see disgust or fear, there was instead sympathy and understanding. She was so focused on trying to figure out why these people didn’t hate her that she didn’t notice the man next to her had turned until he spoke.

“Lilith, how long have you had these powers?” his tone was soft and calming and Lilith felt herself relaxing at the sound of it.

“Oh, and I’m Bruce.” he added after obviously getting kicked by the person opposite him _‘Bruce huh? Well that’s gonna be fun to try and say without sounding stupid.’_

“All my life. I was born with them.” She muttered adjusting the shades she was wearing and sinking into her seat. She was trying to follow Peter’s advice and just tell the truth but she didn’t know these people and they could want anything from her, including her powers. A man near the end of the table who had been glaring at Lilith like his stare alone could melt her brain scrunched his nose in confusion and swinging his chair back on two legs asked

“What’s with the shades, we’re inside?” Without answering Lilith faced him and slide the shades off her face. The man dropped his chair back onto all four legs and glanced at Tony before smiling softly

“Pretty cool eyes. But yeah…maybe keep the shades for now.” the man, Clint, said before turning his attention to his food. It seemed that either most of their questions were answered or they noticed the Lilith had grown uncomfortable because after she slid the shades back on a semi-comfortable silence fell over the room with only the scraping of cutlery on plates and bowls breaking it. In the face of Clint’s apparent disregard of her looks, Lilith decided to be brave and glanced around the table at the others while she to dug into her food. At the head of the table was an older man who had an air of authority that was distinctly military and yet seemed pretty laid back.

“That’s James Rhodes everyone calls him Rhodey though” Peter muttered to her when he caught her staring. Rhodey, who must have heard his name, looked over at her and gave a small smile while adjusting himself in his seat before returning his attention to the bacon and eggs in front of him. On his left sat the Falcon who didn’t notice Lilith at all (which she was slightly grateful for) and on his right sat Black Widow whose expression softened slightly from cold robot to calculating human when she caught Lilith staring. Next to her was Peter who was looking at Lilith concerned when a slice of toast fell out of her hoodie pocket and onto the floor.

On Lilith’s other side Bruce was talking quietly to Tony who was sitting on his right, though she couldn’t understand what they were talking about. When she looked past Tony, Lilith began to understand why no one here looked at her like she was any different than a normal homeless chick one of them met as there was a red and green man...robot...android maybe? Sitting at the end of the table looking longingly at the woman across from him. To the left of the young woman the android was so enraptured with sat Clint who was scarfing down his food like it was going to be his last meal. When he noticed her watching him he stopped eating long enough to look at Lilith and wink, cheeks bulging like a hamster. He looked so ridiculous that she couldn’t contain the giggles that left her, which thankfully either no one noticed or just didn’t talk about.

The man sitting next to Clint was a tank. He had muscles that rivalled Captain America’s, brown hair that was tied back into a bun that he actually managed to make look tasteful, a...was that a METAL ARM! and striking blue eyes that…were looking straight at her. He gave her a small smile before asking,

“Your accent, I haven’t heard it before, where are you from?” In the 4 years that Lilith had been stuck in New York she hadn’t managed to shake the thing, not that she really wanted to.

“Australia, and if anyone asks me to ‘put a shrimp on the barbie’ I will not hesitate to claw your eyes out.” Her mumbled reply sent the man into a fit of laughter as Steve choked on his orange juice which then set the rest of the table off into a fit of giggles and laughter.

“Kotenok has claws.” The man next to Clint said as his laughter subsided.

“Buck, c’mon.” Steve groaned

“She certainly does.” The man between Steve and Falcon said. His voice was smooth and he had a rather amazing accent “I am T’challa it is a pleasure to meet you Lilith. This beside me is Sam who seems to have forgotten we have a guest.” he nudged the Falcon who nudged him back.

“I didn’t forget kitkat I just thought she wouldn’t like so many eyes on her.” Sam said smiling at her and he was right it was kind of a relief when he didn’t notice her. As she was thinking about that she realised what Bucky had just called her,

“I am not a kitten” Lilith muttered under her breath earning an eyebrow raised in her direction from him. She expected to be asked about it but Bucky just shook his head and went back to eating. The rest of the breakfast was pleasant and Lilith found herself beginning to relax as time went on. She started up a small conversation with Peter about things that differed between America and Australia and was so focused on what she and Peter were talking about that she missed the pointed stares and glares the other were using to silently communicate with.

“Hey Peter, why don’t you show Lilith around the tower.” Tony waved a hand behind him to the door of the room as breakfast was finishing up.

“Yeah that sounds great. You want to see the training rooms?” Peter was staring at her now bouncing with excitement in his seat.

“Sure, why not.” She was completely bewildered by the fact that they needed more than one _‘_ training room’ whatever that was. Lilith rose from her seat and was rushed out of the room by Peter who had grabbed her hand and practically ran to the elevator. Even stuck inside the small space, Peter didn’t stop moving, not until they were situated inside what could only be classed as a cinema. Instead of cinema seats though there were large arm chairs couches and bean bags surrounding a huge screen.

“So, this isn’t the training room but this is going to be so much better. FRIDAY can you play the footage from the security feeds in the communal kitchen please.” Peter began to get comfortable, stretching out on the biggest couch, while Lilith moved to a large purple bean bag in the corner.

_“_ Of course, Peter. Would you like the others to know you are spying on them?” A disembodied voice, with a lovely Irish accent, spoke like she disapproved of his actions greatly.

“Oh…uhh no. And this is Lilith. Lilith this is FRIDAY she’s the AI that runs the tower so if you need anything just call for her and she’ll help.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Lilith.”

“Wow, it’s lovely to meet you to FRIDAY.” Lilith scanned the room trying to find the cameras FRIDAY must use but they were hidden well and the lights were beginning to dim as FRIDAY began projecting the security feed onto the large screen. The Avengers were all arguing, still in their seats from earlier.

“We can’t just let her back out onto the streets.” Clint yelled slamming his hands onto the table making Lilith flinch. She had to get out of here now. These people could want to use her or give her back to _Him_. She needed to get somewhere safe.

“No wait. Lilith where are you going. Please just stay until their finished talking. I know it sounds bad but they are really good guys.” Peter had grabbed Lilith’s wrist as she stood and was pleading with those puppy eyes again. that wasn’t fair. How the hell is Lilith supposed to fight those eyes.

Slowly, Lilith sat back on the bean bag. Every one of her muscles tense, waiting for the moment that she would have to run.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think they would get that loud…or passionate.” Peter mumbled looking sheepish. Lilith just wanted to get this over with so she could escape if she needed to.

“I-It’s fine. I’m fine. Can we just keep watching please?” Lilith hated that her voice was so small and wobbly. The footage, which FRIDAY had paused, resumed without a single word having to be said.

“I mean anyone could grab her and if she has the abilities that Tony say she does it wouldn’t be by anyone even remotely nice. We can’t just let her starve either and did you see the way she reacted to all of us? She was terrified!” Clint was beginning to rant and looked genuinely distressed at the thought of Lilith being homeless, hungry and scared.

“Don’t worry Sunshine we won’t, no matter what we decide I think we can all agree that Lilith won’t be going back to being alone on the streets.” Bucky interjected before Clint could work himself up too much. He rubbed his hands up both of Clint’s arms before moving his head to rest on Bucky’s shoulder

“Well shoving a gauntlet in her face probably didn’t help with the whole terrified thing.” Tony looked down at the table sheepishly while Clint looked ready to jump it and murder him before Black Widow spoke up.

“I think we should train her, see how she goes and maybe add her to the team eventually. Her powers could prove useful if she can control them.”

“Peter seems to like her and he is a generally good judge of character.” Bruce added, absent-mindedly wiping his glasses. The conversation continued much in the same way for an hour after that. The decision had been unanimous in the end. Lilith was to stay with them and get trained to be an Avenger, with a lot of restrictions at first though. When the screen began to fade and the lights in the room grew brighter Peter turned to her with a smile that instantly fell when he saw her.

“Shit, that was supposed to make you feel better please don’t cry. I’m sorry.” he reached up and wiped at her face. His hand was wet when he pulled it back. Lilith opened her mouth to tell him she was fine but no words came out. How was she supposed tell him that he had just given her something that she hadn’t had since she was 5 years old. Lilith was still wary of course but they didn’t know they were being watched so what they had said must have been genuine, right?

“No, no Peter they’re happy tears.” Was what came tumbling from her mouth after she could actually form words. She laughed as his look of horror and guilt melted into a smile so big it threatened to split his face in half.

“Boss says that there’s a meeting in the communal lounge that you two need to be at.” FRIDAY informed them and Peter glanced bashfully at the roof before helping Lilith up and leading her back into the elevator.

The doors opened to reveal a cleaned dining and kitchen area and all the Avengers now scattered in the living area. Lilith and Peter both founds seats before Tony stood and addressed the room

“So, we were all talking and we have decided that you since you are y’know homeless and all you should probably stay here and if you want to, get trained to be an Avenger.” Tony said gesturing wildly while Bruce mouthed RUN from the couch beside him.

“There will be rules though and for the time being you will have to stay in one of the guest rooms on one of our floors and unfortunately Peter’s floor is not available.” Steve said using an I’m Captain America tone of voice.

“’s only because I don’t have a floor. Just a room.” Peter grumbled and pouted while Tony rolled his eyes. Glancing around Lilith wondered which floor she would be put on and hoped the it would be Clint’s. The man didn’t seemed phased by her and had managed to make her laugh.

“Can I stay with Clint then. I-if that’s ok.” She blurted before she could stop herself, directing the last part to Clint who looked quite surprised to say the least. After at least a minute of him gaping like a fish Bucky answered.

“It’s fine you can stay on our floor if you want.” he moved to put an arm around Clint while he smiled at her.

“Well that was easier than I thought it would be. Right then, Clint and Bucky can show you to their floor and where you can put your stuff.” Tony stood clapping his hands together before looking at Lilith.

“Umm...this is all I have.” She whispered refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Not wanting to see their pity.

“Alright then after you’ve been shown your room you, me, Bruce and Nat are going shopping.” Tony declared, without missing a beat, and before anyone could argue with him he dashed out of the room, Bruce following close behind _._ Lilith just stared dumbfounded at the door and quietly pulled an apple from her hoodie and began munching on it.


	3. Shopping Trip

“So this is our floor.” Clint gestured to the room in front of him as he, Bucky and Lilith all stepped out of the elevator. The room they stepped into was a huge open plan living space with a sleek, modern kitchen at one end and a large, very comfortable looking lounge at the other. Separating the two areas was a small dining table that looked barely used, actually the entirety of the kitchen looked barely used.

“Your room is down this way.” Bucky grunted while leading her down a small hallway and into the last door on the left, while Clint moved toward another room in the suite. Inside there was another wall of floor to ceiling windows with a massive bed against the opposite wall facing them. To the right of it was a door that Lilith guessed lead to a bathroom.

“Thank you for letting me stay here this is amazing.” She spun slowly looking everywhere before walking towards the bed that Bucky was now sitting on and sat next to him.

“It’s fine and Clint seems to like you.” Bucky shrugged as she sat next to him looking out at the view of the city. In the silence, Lilith took the time to process what had just happened. In just a few hours she had managed to finally get a good night’s rest and found a place to stay long term too, she wouldn’t call it home, at least not yet. Feeling slightly overwhelmed by it all, Lilith pulled a piece of cold bacon from her hoodie to give her hands something to do. She pulled the paper towel it had been wrapped in off and began to eat.

“Where the hell did you get that from? Jeez, is that from breakfast?” Bucky gasped as Lilith stuffed her face. Without looking up from her food, Lilith pulled a banana out of her hoodie and passed it to Bucky who took it with a mumbled and very sad sounding thank you. Once she was done she glanced at the ex-assassin and shrugged, pulling more food from her hoodie and placing it on the bed beside her.

“I stuffed it all in there when I thought I was gonna have to leave. I probably would have pocketed some even if I had known I would be staying though. It’s just a tough habit to break when you’ve had to scavenge for food most of your life y’know?” she flashed Bucky a shaky smile before staring at her hands and resolutely ignoring him.  Before things became to awkward though Clint walked in and flopped face first in between them.

“So, do you like the room Lil’? Cool, snacks.” Clint peaked out at her from the mattress and intertwined his hand with Bucky’s while reaching for a slice of cold toast.

“Yeah, it’s amazing! I have never had a room this big ever.” Granted she had never really had home let alone a room she could remember but she wasn’t gonna tell them that.

“Okay now that you’ve had the grandish tour of our floor we should probably get you ready for you shopping trip. Nat should be able to lend you some clothes to go out in. Buck wanna help her with the shower?” Clint said directing the last part towards Bucky as he stood from the bed and headed towards the door. As Bucky and Lilith both moved to get up Clint stopped walking and turned to face them.

“There is just one question I want to ask. Why our floor?” he was looking at the floor now, nose scrunched in confusion.

“What?” was Lilith’s ever eloquent response before she realised what he had asked and scrambled to answer before anyone else could speak.

“Oh. Uh, I heard what you said when Peter was showing me around” she air quoted the last part causing both men to snort “and well no one’s ever really _cared_ before.” She whispered, refusing to meet either men’s eyes. Before she could move to get to the bathroom though Lilith was wrapped up in two pairs of strong, muscular arms. One of which smushed her shades into her face.

“Ah! Shit!” Both men dropped their arms and flinched back, like Lilith had burned them.

“What’s wrong?” Clint asked as he checked her over for any injuries.

“My shades. They got pushed into my face it’s fine.” Lilith readjusted them and before she could be swept back up into another hug she strode to the bathroom.

The bathroom was, as seems to be the theme in this place, huge. There was a bath that could have probably fit the hulk in it at one end of the room and a massive fancy looking shower in the corner, with a beautiful double vanity and mirror in the middle. Lilith glared at her reflection as she slid the shades from her eyes. She didn’t understand why everyone here was so okay with her looks. Well most of her looks anyway, they seemed to hate her eyes for some reason. Most people though would have run for the hills by now, and yet these people had welcomed them into their home.

“Don’t worry about wearing those shades around our apartment. Clint and I don’t care how you look. Your eyes are awesome though.” Bucky called from the doorway, making Lilith jump and let out the most pathetic squeak she had ever heard.

“Why give me the shades in the first place then?” She asked, still glaring at her reflection.

“That was for Tony’s sake mostly. It’s nothing against you personally he just has capital I Issues and your eyes reminded him of one of them. if you want to know more than that you’re gonna have to ask Tony yourself.” Bucky pushed himself off the door frame and walked over to the vanity and pulled a towel from underneath it. Placing it near the sink, he moved back toward the shower to begin explaining how to use it, leaving after he was done and with the quiet reassurance that he would just be in the living room.

After at least an hour Lilith was finally clean and headed back into the bedroom where she noticed that someone had left a pile of clothes at the end of the bed. There was a plain, black shirt, comfortable looking jeans and a large hoodie that was fluffy on the inside. Guessing they were for her, Lilith dried herself off and got dressed.

When she was at least semi presentable she moved into the living room and to her perplexed delight was met with Clint and Bucky sitting and reading, right where Bucky said he would be. Clint was perched on the back of the plush couch reading a comic, with Bucky sitting directly in front of him. They both turned their heads to look at her as Lilith entered the room and Clint smiled

“I see you found Nat’s clothes ok.” he greeted cheerily as she moved to sit in front of him.

“Yeah I did. I should probably thank her. ‘cept I don’t exactly know who that is.” Lilith blushed as Clint and Bucky both chuckled.

“Oh, she didn’t say anything at breakfast did she? Well she’s the Black Widow. The young woman that sat next to me was Wanda and the red android was Vision.” He leaped off the back of the couch and headed to the elevator calling over his shoulder “You kinda need to come with me coz I think if we make Tony wait any longer to take you shopping he will try to kidnap you.” Bucky, who had moved from the couch to walk next to Lilith as they headed toward the elevator, gave her a quizzical glance when she flinched slightly at Clint’s words, flashes of cages, lab tables and branding irons dancing across her vision.

“You okay, doll?” Bucky asked leaning close to her ear speaking low enough so that only she could hear him. Not trusting her own voice not to give away her discomfort, Lilith nodded trying to smile, though she was pretty sure it just made her look nauseous, and stepped into the elevator that was now waiting for them. The ride was mostly quiet except for Clint humming to himself. As the doors opened onto what Lilith was beginning to believe was the communal floor, Bucky nudged her and handed her back her shades. Sliding them on she stepped out of the elevator and saw Tony, Bruce and Natasha all sitting in various seats around the living space.

“She lives!” Tony shouted lifting his arms as if praying to a higher power. At the loud noise Lilith moved, shielding herself behind Clint and Bucky. Natasha, raised an eyebrow at the movement but said nothing.

“Yes, she does.” Bruce dead panned lifting his eyes from the novel he was reading. “How was your room, Lilith?”

“Great. It’s amazing.” She mumbled from behind her wall of muscle acutely aware that Tony was looking at her guiltily.

“Can we go now?” Natasha asked no one in particular moving towards the elevator.

“Yep. You two coming Birdbrain?” Tony sauntered over to stand next to Nat who was waiting in front of the elevator now.

“Nah. I think you guys have it handled and someone should be here for when Sam gets back and starts to sulk.” He rolled his eyes moving to sit in the seat that Bruce had vacated while Bucky took Natasha’s. “Oh, and stop somewhere for lunch, Lil’ hasn’t eaten anything since breakfast.” Tony just waved his hand behind his head as he, Bruce, Nat and Lilith shuffled into the elevator.

“Oh. Thanks for the clothes. Clint said they were yours.” Lilith shifted from one foot to the other, glancing at Natasha.

“It’s alright. Do you have any preference for lunch?” she asked looking at Lilith with a soft smile.

“Not really. As long as it’s edible I’ll probably eat it.” At that she got two identical stares full of sympathy and one look of cold calculation, which was a little unnerving.

“Can we eat somewhere quiet though I don’t particularly feel like being in a crowd today.” Bruce asked.

“Sure, I know this great little café on the way to the mall.” Tony began to explain what they were going to do for the rest of the day gesturing with his hands. He kept up his constant stream of babble even as they got out of the elevator and into a very expensive looking silver car. As they pulled out of the garage Natasha, who was in the back with Lilith, turned to face her.

“Tomorrow I’m going to start teaching you some basic self-defence are you ok with that?” She was looking at Lilith with a stare that made it feel like she could see into her soul.

“Yes, that’s fine.” Lilith nodded and stared out the window of the car.

“Of Course. This would go easier if you could tell me a little bit about yourself and what you know, like how you know Russian, for instance.” She prodded but backed off when she noticed that the shadows under the seats began to move, reacting to the fear that even thinking about where that particular skill came from created.

“Not yet. Please.” It came out as a whimper and Lilith lowered her eyes to stare at the floor as the shadows began to settle. She was so focused on keeping control that she missed the concerned looks the others shared.

They stopped at the café and ate lunch in a comfortable almost silence, the sound of Tony and Bruce talking about ‘science things’ and Natasha silently saying, “om nom nom” when she put food into her mouth were the only sounds coming from their table. After they had all eaten and Lilith had stuffed some food into her hoodie pockets, they piled back into the car and went on their way.

The mall was huge, loud and full of people going in every direction, many of whom didn’t seem to notice the small group of Avengers in their midst. Lilith could feel her nails digging into her palms and her breath hitch as her heart made a valiant attempt at leaping from her chest.

“You’d think people would notice us. I mean hardly anyone has and we aren’t even in disguise.” Tony whined, pouting in Lilith’s direction as he led the group further into the shopping complex. “But it is actually good to be left alone for a change. Contrary to popular belief I don’t actually like getting ambushed every time I leave my home.”

“Yes. It is nice to be able to walk around without a disguise of some kind.” Natasha murmured. She was walking next to Lilith on her left while Tony was in front of her and Bruce was to her right. She didn’t even notice her hands unclenching or breathing settle until Tony turned to wink at her and she giggled. These people that she had only known for a day somehow made her feel safe. That in itself was frightening but she didn’t have much time to dwell on it as they stopped in front of a small shop that seemed to sell underwear.

Lilith was sure that her face was glowing red as Natasha ushered her into the store while Bruce and Tony sat outside muttering to each other about something. After a very awkward hour of being fitted and trying on different things they emerged from the shop with two bags worth of undergarments.

The rest of the trip went the same with Natasha leading Lilith through the different stores to try on and buy clothes and shoes and Tony and Bruce hanging back and talking amongst themselves. There were only two times that routine changed, once was when Lilith picked up the latest Iphone and Tony all but tackled her to the ground spluttering and ranting about how Stark phones were at least 100 times better than that old hunk of junk. The other was when they were leaving and Bruce steered them into a tiny bookshop just before the exit.

“I thought you might like something to read sometimes.” he said as they all wandered around the shelves of books, each of them gravitating towards their favourite genres.

“Yeah it would be nice. But you have…”

“Nope don’t care. If you want something just grab it ok? I actually want to spend money on you, it’s how I show affection.” Tony cut Lilith off with practiced ease as he wandered over and smiled brightly but sincerely. His tone made it sound like he had this argument before many times. After that, Lilith began staring at the fantasy section of books not really paying attention to what she pulled from the shelf. She was too busy remember stealing from places like this, always trying to find something to keep her occupied and away from reality. After a while she felt someone tap her shoulder and tensed. Slowly turning she sighed when she saw that it was just Bruce holding a book out to her.

“It’s called Eragon and I thought you might like it seeing as you’ve been studying the fantasy section and pulling out all the books even remotely related to dragons.”

“Thank you. This is great.” Lilith smiled shyly at him as she took the book and moved to look at the comic and graphic novel sections.

By the time they left the mall, with more books than clothes, and managed to get to the car it was nearing dinner time. As they were driving back Natasha was observing her, watching from the corner of her eye as she leaned to look out the windscreen from the back seat. The suspicion that had been fading from her all afternoon was back full force.

Noticing the subtle glare, Lilith began to mentally backtrack to try and find out when the watching actually started and...

Oh no.

It had started after the bra shopping. Specifically, after she tried on her first bra and had gotten Natasha to do it up, which meant that she saw the scar on her shoulder and she definitely knows whose crest it was. Shit! Lilith could feel her breathing hitch slightly, shadows under the seats shifting and writhing. She flinched when she felt a slender hand rest on her shoulder and looked up to see the red head staring at her with concern and thinly veiled curiosity.

“Lil’, I won’t ask about it until you are ready to talk. I trust Clint and Yasha and they are okay with you so you don’t need to worry.” She was rubbing small circles on Lilith’s shoulder and she watched as the shadows at her feet settled and her breathing calmed.

“Thank you.” She muttered as she twisted to look out her window, this time noticing the worried glances that Bruce and Tony shared.


End file.
